Newcastle United legend Peter Beardsley has spoken of how he managed to join Liverpool.
Beardsley was part of a great team at Anfield under Kenny Dalglish.
On how he moved to Anfield, Beardsley told liverpoolfc.tv: "It was through one of the scouts that still works for the football club - a fellow called Alex Smailes. Alex had been a big part of Liverpool's history. When you look at the amount of north-east players that have gone that way, he's been involved in all of them and he was involved in my transfer. He asked me would I be interested in going to Liverpool but he only asked me after I'd been told Newcastle were ready for me to go.
"Willie McFaul, who was the manager at the time, called me in. I had two years to go on my contract at Newcastle and he told me they wanted me to sign a new one. I said to Willie: 'I don't want to sign tomorrow. I'm happy and I've still got two years to go. All I want is the club to show me the ambition of what they are thinking of doing.' He said: 'If you're not going to sign, we're going to sell you. 'Then he told me Liverpool were interested.
"I got the chance to speak to Kenny Dalglish, and for me to take over from 'God', as I call him, in terms of the No.7 shirt was just the greatest thing ever - especially when you consider Kevin Keegan wore it and then Kenny Dalglish, probably the best No. 7 they ever had. It's a special shirt and probably always will be because of those two. For Kenny trusting me to wear his shirt, it wouldn't have mattered if they had said 'We'll give you a pound in wages.' I would have done it. Genuinely."
Beardsley admits the decision to join Liverpool wasn't difficult.
"It's easy to say in hindsight, and people will say 'He's only saying that', but it was the only club - and I mean that genuinely. I had already been to Man United and failed. Without being disrespectful to other clubs, Liverpool were the biggest and the best then. John Barnes was already there, a big mate of mine through the England set-up. Aldo had come in just before that and Ray Houghton came straight after me. It was brilliant because Kenny obviously had a lot of great players and great friends in that team, but he was in the process of re-modelling the team. To be part of what he thought was the next era was a special thing."
